


Where The Wind Don't Change And Nothing In The Ground Can Ever Grow

by violawrites



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, BAMF Pepper Potts, F/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 05:53:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16738345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violawrites/pseuds/violawrites
Summary: Everything after Central Park seems like some sort of Greek myth that he should have paid better attention to instead of sleeping in History class. He has only a vague memory of learning about Odysseus taking far too long to get home from a war. Tony finds he can relate. Wasn’t he stuck on an island where the minutes pass like years to the outside world? For all Tony knows time works differently on Titan too and it’s been so long on earth that everyone will have forgotten about him. He isn’t sure whether to consider this possibility the best or worse case scenario.





	Where The Wind Don't Change And Nothing In The Ground Can Ever Grow

“FRIDAY, call Pepper.” Those are the first words Tony speaks once his suit is back in range. It’s been shot to hell by a literal god who he believes is holding a grudge after being rejected for a Rainsinettes commercial, but he’s made it work again. At his core, Tony is nothing if not a mechanic, patching things together and doing the best he can with what he has in front of him. The life support systems and thrusters are both somehow as good as new, though not all the red is from the paint anymore.

Everything after Central Park seems like some sort of Greek myth that he should have paid better attention to instead of sleeping in History class. He has only a vague memory of learning about Odysseus taking far too long to get home from a war. Wasn’t he stuck on an island where the minutes pass like years to the rest of the world? Tony finds he can relate. For all he knows time works differently on Titan too and it’s been so long on earth that everyone will have forgotten about him. He isn’t sure whether to consider this possibility the best or worse case scenario.

“Calling Ms. Potts.” The AI responds. It’s a familiar voice and Tony decides that the pang in chest that follows is most definitely from the aftermath of being stabbed, not because he’s missed her. The potential for cardiac arrest will always be less worrying to him than having to express his feelings. He listens for a few glorious moments as FRIDAY continutes to speak.

“And might I say, Boss, it’s good to -” The voice crackles and fades out just as it had on the outgoing trip, but this time it’s unexpected. It takes a few seconds but the AI’s voice filters back in. “ - good to hear from you again.”

He waits as the call goes through and counts the rings as they pass, getting all the way to eight when the overly chipper automated voice tells him that the mailbox of the person he is trying to reach is full. Tony curses and hangs up. He seems to be building up an immunity to the feeling of helplessness the way he’s heard about people building up an immunity to poison.

To say it makes him anxious that he can’t get a hold of Pepper is an understatement. Her wellbeing is one of his most important responsibilities, if not the most. It was one of the last things he’d said to her before the wizard appeared through the yellow brick portal. That the reason he’d undergone dozens of hours of surgery to have the arc reactor put back in his chest was so he could handle things in case there were ever any monsters in the closet. He remembers Bruce telling him that it had been Thanos who was responsible for the attack on New York and Thanos who was now trying to gain the power to destroy the entire universe. Same monster, bigger closet.

It seems like an eternity before they land on earth. Even during the approach from the air it’s clear to see how different things are below. But it’s not until he opens the door and steps out that he notices the biggest difference. It’s quiet. The New York he knows, the city he’s lived in since he was born is nothing if not talkitive, and it never shuts up. Not like this. There’s no sirens, no car horns, no construction work going on every corner.

A newspaper vending box is hanging wide open on the sidewalk and Tony finds himself mildly surprised to be greeted with the sight of his own face on the cover of the New York Post. He plucks the last copy out of the machine and shakes the layer of dust off, realizing too late that it might be something else entirely. On the front page is a splashy color photo of him in a three piece suit from whatever tech summit he’d attended most recently, sitting ominously below the headline.

**_TONY STARK MISSING AS CITY FACES CRISIS._ **

There’s an accusatory tone somewhere in there that he doesn’t appreciate, like maybe he failed, though there’s also a voice in the back of his head that can’t disgree. But it’s the date on the top that makes his expression shift from annoyance to one of confusion. It’s from the day after he’d boarded the spaceship and knighted the kid as an Avenger.

Tony’s never known New York to be a paragon of cleanliness exactly, but it’s only gotten worse since he’s been away judging from the garbage strewn along the streets and the way the cars are stopped at angles that would give geometry students a headache, the alarms apparently having having worn themselves out long ago.

He walks the block and a half to Stark Tower without seeing another soul. The automatic doors in the front don’t open, but he makes it through the revolving one just to the side and into the lobby. There’s no one at the front desk either. It’s not that he’d exactly expected it after what he’s seen outside but there’s still something so unsettling about it all the same. Suddenly he’s glad to be inside a suit of armor.

“FRIDAY, try Pepper again.” He instructs. The response comes almost immediately.

“Will do, but I’ve done some interfacing with the local emergency services frequency and it appears that many of the cell towers are currently out of order along with the power.” The AI tells him. If Tony had long since hacked into the NYPD’s internal communications for his own purposes, that was really nobody’s business. The line rings again as he makes his way toward the bank of elevators down the hall and there’s still no answer by the time he’s standing in front of the metal doors. He notices that the lights are off on the call buttons.

“Any chance you can restore power back to the main elevators here?” Tony asks. He and FRIDAY are on home turf again at the very least, where he has backup systems built into his backup systems. Almost as soon as he’s spoken the words the lights near the elevator flicker to life. He taps his chest as he steps into the elevator, removing the nanotech mask from his face but doesn’t feel safe enough yet to completely dismantle the rest of the suit. FRIDAY steps in to start taking them up to the ninetieth floor without Tony even asking. If Pepper is anywhere in the tower it’s likely she’ll be there, in their living quarters.

When the doors open, he’s struck once again by the erie quiet of everything, a silence that seems heavy enough to threaten the structural integrity of the building itself. But that soon changes as he hears a thump, and then something that sounds a lot like someone walking around, and it’s not the graceful footsteps he knows belong to Pepper.

Tony braces himself, lifting his right hand to aim the repulsor in the direction the sound is coming from. He doesn’t have to wait long however, as the footsteps grow louder and a figure bursts through the doorway that separates the kitchen from the living room of their apartment.

“Tony?! Oh my god, holy shit! You’re alive!” A blur of black and white barrels towards Tony as Happy wraps his arms around him. Now that he realizes he’s not in danger, Tony takes a step back to look at the man. He looks like he hasn’t slept in a week, but somehow his suit is pressed and his Stark Industries badge is clipped proudly to his jacket pocket. As glad as he is to see his best friend, he has to ask the more painful question.

“Where’s Pepper, is she here?” Happy shakes his head and Tony is glad he’s still holding on to the other man’s shoulders because he thinks his legs might give out. “No, she -” Happy doesn’t get to finish his sentence however, as FRIDAY interrupts.

“Boss, I’ve registered a disturbance downstairs. Unauthorized personnel trying to activate the elevator.” She informs them.

“Not again.” Happy grumbles, swearing under his breath. He heads toward the elevator, not pausing until he notices Tony is walking in the opposite direction toward the exit that leads to the launch pad outside. “Where are you going?"

“You take the long way, I’ll . . . meet you downstairs.” Tony tells him.

In less than twenty seconds he’s back where he was just minutes before, standing outside Stark Tower. This time he can see a group of men just past the reception desk inside, masks pulled over their faces. Under normal circumstances Tony would find this breach of privacy maddening, but after everything he’s been through and everything he’s lost, his patience is gone and he’s wavering dangerously close to violence again.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not nice to take things that aren’t yours?” Tony asks, his voice loud enough that he gets the group’s attention. As they get closer it’s easier to tell there are five of them, but being outnumbered doesn’t concern him in the least.

He steps forward, cutting the distance between them and watches as the one in front draws a gun from the waistband of his pants. If this is the way these morons are going to play this then Tony has no problem getting in on the game.

“FRIDAY, set the blasters to stun.” He tells the AI. Even if he’s taken matters into his own hands, he’s not Thanos and has no plans to add to the list of people who have died.

Tony aims for the one who’s armed first but the repulsor doesn’t fire. Apparently nanotech is tougher to repair than he’d thought. He hits the right glove of the suit against the left but still nothing. He decides that he’ll just have to fight his way out of this one the old fashioned way when there’s a crash behind him. It’s not the sound of the glass breaking that’s familiar but the whirring and metal hitting metal as the bullet bounces off the suit that looks so much like his own.

Tony turns around, now fully able to see the rescue armor. The repulsors on _that_ suit work without a hitch because delicate mechanics tend to function a whole lot better when attached to a suit that hasn’t been crushed on a foreign planet, Tony supposes. The blast hits the first culprit squarely in the chest sending him flying back into the wall. The other four men take the hint and run as fast as they can toward the exit, evidently not as moronic as their friend who will probably be unconscious for quite some time still.

Once the lobby is cleared of intruders, Tony realizes that he hasn’t been breathing since the rescue armor appeared and that he should probably start again. He doesn’t want to let himself believe what he’s seeing, but there, six feet from him is a blossom of hope in the form of a red and gold suit. The mask recedes into the shoulders and Tony is met with the sight of the most beautiful thing he’s ever laid eyes on; Pepper Potts, alive and safe.

Then he does dismantle the rest of the suit because he needs to touch her with his own hands and prove to himself that this is actually real. So he rushes over and does just that, cupping her face while checking for any signs of injury, of which he mercifully finds none.

“You’re okay.” He says more than asks, unsure of exactly who he’s trying to reassure. Pepper nods at him and gives a few watery blinks that Tony fears might match his own.

“I thought you were gone.” She tells him. Her voice is relief and worry in equal parts but all Tony can concentrate on is the fact that she’s in front of him and whole. Which is more than he can say for most of the people he fought alongside on Titan.

“Not me.” It’s the first time he’s even gotten close to saying the words out loud or talking about what happened. Pepper doesn’t press him right then but Tony knows that he’ll have to tell her the story at some point. “How long have you been —?” He asks, gesturing to the suit.

“A while. I know you hate people taking your stuff, but I thought in this case maybe it would be okay.” She flashes him a sad smile and a soft chuckle escapes her lips. He doesn’t mind in the least. He doesn’t even mind when Happy crashes breathlessly through the door from the stairwell and interrupts their moment. As elated as he is to see Pepper, he knows that they have to get back to reality. And they have a lot of work to do.


End file.
